The Italian island of Sardinia is dealing with its worst swarm of
locusts in 70 years as the insects destroy crops, infest houses and
devastate animal grazing pastures covering 6,200 acres, according to Reuters.
“I have never seen anything like it in 53 years of life,” breeder Luigi Puggioni told the Italian newspaper La Nuova.
Weather patterns played a role in Sardinia, as droughts in 2017 and heavy rains in 2018 created “the ideal climate for locusts to emerge from fallow land and then move to cultivated fields to eat,” Michele Arbau from the Italian agricultural association Coldiretti told Reuters.
However, the Sardinian swarm that evokes references to the Biblical plague in the Book of Exodus -- “the locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt” -- is not as unusual as it may seem.
In 2013, a massive swarm of locusts roughly 30 million strong hit Egypt and the Middle East, and in 2004, an infestation in Africa and the Middle East cost $400 million as well as harvest losses of $2.5 billion, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.
Read more: Biblical plague of locusts is swarming over Italian farmlands. Could it happen in the US?
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“I have never seen anything like it in 53 years of life,” breeder Luigi Puggioni told the Italian newspaper La Nuova.
Weather patterns played a role in Sardinia, as droughts in 2017 and heavy rains in 2018 created “the ideal climate for locusts to emerge from fallow land and then move to cultivated fields to eat,” Michele Arbau from the Italian agricultural association Coldiretti told Reuters.
However, the Sardinian swarm that evokes references to the Biblical plague in the Book of Exodus -- “the locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt” -- is not as unusual as it may seem.
In 2013, a massive swarm of locusts roughly 30 million strong hit Egypt and the Middle East, and in 2004, an infestation in Africa and the Middle East cost $400 million as well as harvest losses of $2.5 billion, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.
Read more: Biblical plague of locusts is swarming over Italian farmlands. Could it happen in the US?
The Digest Group
Almere-Digest
EU-Digest
Insure-Digest
Turkish-Digest
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